Writing in the Blackberry Patch

Welcome to my Blog

2023-07-30T14:00:00.005-04:00

Hi, everyone.

I started blogging back in 2008.

That's a longtime ago in blog years!

I don't blog much any more, you can mainly see me on Facebook and YouTube.

My channel is called, Janet Smart-Country Living. I post about wildlife, recipes, crafts, excerpts from my books, folklore and superstitions, wildlife, and traveling West Virginia. Go to my playlists and see what I've posted about. I'd love it if you'd visit me there and subscribe to my channel.

Even if I don't post a lot on my blog anymore, there's still a lot to see on here.

Go to my sidebar and you will see my -----

cooking and recipe posts you can click on

vintage collections you can click on

crafts and sewing posts you can click on

And there is a section called, Recording our Past posts.

I'm just a country girl who grew up in a holler in West Virginia. I love writing. I've written two books loosely based on my grandparents who got married in 1908. The books, Where the Stars Grant Wishes and Mama's Memories, are filled with superstitions, folklore, and the old ways of growing up in the country in the early 1900s. And I also write for children. You can find all my books on Amazon. Click here to visit my author page.

Go here to hear me read the first chapter of Mama's Memories.

Thanks for visiting. I will still post on this blog every now and then, but until I do enjoy visiting my other posts.

Posted by Janet Smart

Pretty Gumdrop Ornaments

2022-12-10T13:37:00.001-05:00

THIS IS A RE-POST FROM 2008

I've got a table at a small craft show this weekend. I've been making, among other things, ornaments to sell.

Here are steps to making pretty gumdrop ornaments.

Supplies needed: paint (color or your choice), glue, 22 gauge craft wire, egg shape Styrofoam, glitter, paint brushes, toothpicks, serrated knife, small wire cutters

Cutting the Styrofoam with serrated knife.

Cut a short piece of wire, bend in half and twist the bottom ends around each other. Dip in glue and push into rounded top of Styrofoam. This will be the hanger.

Paint bottom of gumdrop and sprinkle with glitter while paint is still wet.

Insert toothpick into bottom of gumdrop and paint the top.

Stick gumdrops into something to dry (I used another piece of Styrofoam) and sprinkle top of gumdrops with glitter (again, while the paint is still wet).

Here are the finished gumdrop ornaments. They look good enough to eat.....but don't!

I also made little gumdrops with the small cut off ends of the Styrofoam. These would be cute hanging on a small kitchen tree. I like the orange best, what's your favorite?

Writing Wednesday

2022-10-19T11:02:00.002-04:00

Cliffhangers!

When I'm writing a story, I try to include cliffhangers at the end of my chapters.

In the first book of my trilogy, Where the Stars Grant Wishes, I end my first chapter this way. . .

My clammy fingers fidgeted with the embroidered hanky Ma had given me earlier for something new and something blue. I gasped. What were my borrowed and old items? Had Ma forgotten? I couldn't get married without them. Restless, my feet stirred beneath my skirt. Should I turn and run or stay?

Does it make you want to read the next chapter to see if she gets cold feet on her wedding day?

Book two, Mama's Memories, is a little different than the first. I reminiscence in it. Or should I say, Lucy (my main character) reminiscences.

I wasn't sure if it was gonna work or not, buy everyone who has read it says the book is not confusing at all the way I wrote it.

Lucy is pregnant with her 8th child in this book, which takes place in 1924, and she is close to her delivery date. At different times she thinks back to events that has happened in her life since the ending of the first book (Where the Stars Grant Wishes) in 1910.

I end the chapters before she reminiscences with phrases like this.....

"I try to block the memory out of my mind," I said. "We can't go back and change what happened. But I still remember every detail of what took place as if it were yesterday . . .

This is the end of Chapter 1, and hopefully it makes the reader want to read chapter 2 where she reminiscences about the time she overdoses her first baby with laudanum.

In 1918 the war raged overseas, countries competed with each other for power, and there was so much killing but not in the holler. In the holler I was giving birth to a set of twins . . .

This is the end of chapter 11 where she leads up to chapter 12 and reminiscences about the birth of her twins, when all along she thought she was only carrying one baby!

And at the end of the book, I, hopefully, make you want to read the third book of my trilogy (which I am currently writing) by saying . . .

It was time now for my youngins to start their lives and make their own memories and mistakes. I just hoped Jonathan and I had brought them up well and their good memories would outweigh their mistakes and their wishes on stars would always come true.

Only time would tell . . .

If you haven't read them yet, I hope you consider reading them and write a review. They are also both available on kindle unlimited. Click on the pics below to go to their Amazon page.